Year: 2016

Free Thought Project – by Justin Gardner

A menacing gray skyscraper, known as the Long Lines Building to New Yorkers, assumed to be nothing more than an AT&T hub, is one of the most important surveillance facilities of the National Security Agency (NSA).

An investigation by The Intercept found that the “Project X” building – constructed to withstand an atomic blast and house and feed 1,500 people for two weeks – is host to the NSA as it works with AT&T conducting mass surveillance.   Continue reading “Mysterious Dark Skyscraper in NYC Exposed as Major NSA Spy Hub in Partnership with AT&T”

The Daily Sheeple – by Piper McGowin

Wow. Maybe Obama is going for another award or something.

The president, who is on pace to increase the national debt another $2.4 trillion in his final year, just passed a whopping 527 pages of regulations in a single day — a new record, even for him.   Continue reading “Obama Just Broke a New Record on Regulations — a Whopping 527 Pages in a Single DAY”

Reuters

A 23-year-old man who was scalded to death after falling into a boiling Yellowstone National Park hot spring in June was trying to test the temperature of the bubbling pool for a soak when he slipped in, according to a report on the incident.

Colin Nathaniel Scott was seen by his sister, Sable, plunging into the hot spring near Pork Chop Geyser on June 7. His body was never recovered and according to the U.S. Department of the Interior report, likely dissolved in the highly acidic, 212 degrees Fahrenheit water.   Continue reading “Man killed in boiling Yellowstone pool was looking for hot soak: report”

RT

China has slammed a recent US Congressional report accusing Beijing of interfering in Hong Kong as “irresponsible,” while strongly objecting “to any foreign institutions intervening” in what it insists “are purely China’s internal affairs.”

The US report “inappropriately commented [on] and smeared” the Chinese government’s policies towards Hong Kong, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry commissioner’s office in Hong Kong said, as cited by the South China Morning Post newspaper.    Continue reading “China tells US not to meddle in Hong Kong affairs after Washington bashes Beijing in new report”

Consumerist – by Chris Moran

Over a period of seven years, JPMorgan Chase hired or gave internships to around 200 individuals, not because they were the best people for their positions (they often weren’t), but at the request of foreign government officials and clients. That practice, alleged U.S. regulators, was a violation of federal law. Now Chase has agreed to pay a total of more than $264 million to settle these allegations of nepotism-gone-too-far.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act forbids certain companies and company officials from making “an offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of any money, or offer, gift, promise to give, or authorization of the giving of anything of value to any foreign official” to gain influence or secure an unfair advantage.   Continue reading “JPMorgan Chase To Pay $264M To Settle Corruption Allegations For Hiring Friends, Family Of Government Officials”

Breitbart

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan said Thursday he will challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader, shaking up the Democratic leadership race after the party’s electoral shellacking.

“What we are doing right now is not working,” the 43-year-old Ryan said in a letter. “Under our current leadership, Democrats have been reduced to our smallest congressional minority since 1929. This should indicate to all of us that keeping our leadership team completely unchanged will simply lead to more disappointment in future elections.”   Continue reading “Democrat Tim Ryan to Challenge Nancy Pelosi for House Minority Leader”

Reason – Jacob Sullum

Like a California law that took effect last January, the gun control initiative that Washington voters overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday authorizes court orders that deprive people of the right to arms without due process. In fact, Initiative 1491, which was backed by Gov. Jay Inslee and attracted support from 71 percent of voters, is even less respectful of due process and the Second Amendment.   Continue reading “A Resounding Vote Against Due Process and the Second Amendment”

Mercury News

WASHINGTON  — It all starts with the wall.

Donald Trump’s vow to build a wall along the border with Mexico, to make Mexico pay for it and to achieve iron-fisted control over illegal immigration stands as his leading promise, one that rang from the rafters countless times. But he owes his supporters — and now the country — much more than that.   Continue reading “Donald Trump’s to-do list: The wall, and other things he promised”

C.O.G. Inc.

To the citizens of the United States of America, in light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II resumes monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy.    Continue reading “A Letter To the US from John Cleese”

Fusion

MEXICO CITY— The Mexican government is scrambling to adjust its strategy from carefully confronting candidate Trump to defending itself against President-elect Trump.

It’s not an easy task. There’s not much Mexico can do at this point to dissuade the Trump administration from following through on its campaign promises to build a wall, impose trade tariffs, renegotiate NAFTA and deport undocumented immigrants.   Continue reading “Mexican government launches 11-point plan to deal with Trump”

CNBC News

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will meet with Donald Trump this weekend to discuss the secretary of state position, a source close to the president-elect with direct knowledge of his thinking told NBC News.

In March, the former Massachusetts governor called Trump “a phony” and “a fraud” when discussing the then-candidate. Trump, who endorsed Romney in 2012, has called him a loser, adding that Romney begged for his endorsement and “would’ve dropped to his knees” for it. He has also said that he “choked like a dog” during his 2012 presidential campaign against President Barack Obama.   Continue reading “Romney and Trump to discuss secretary of state position, NBC source says”

Infowars – by Wayne Madsen

The purge of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie loyalists from the Donald Trump presidential transition team has little to do with Christie’s Bridgegate scandal and everything to do with a battle between Bush-era neoconservatives and national security realists for control over key departments of the Trump administration.

It appears that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the publisher of the New York Observer and someone who is aligned with the Likud Party of Israel, is now the de facto chair of the Trump transition team, especially when it comes to national security matters.   Continue reading “Neocon Invasion of Team Trump Fully Underway”

New York Post – by Daniel Harper

So much for Swiss neutrality.

An agency overseen by the Swiss foreign ministry made a hefty donation to the Clinton Foundation — at the same time the US and Switzerland were in the midst of a diplomatic struggle over tax evasion.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation shelled out about $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation in 2011, money earmarked for a program that sought to lower mortality for mothers and infants in Liberia, the Schweiz am Sonntag newspaper discovered on Sunday, according to The Local.   Continue reading “Switzerland not so neutral with Clinton Foundation donation”